Abstract

The academic and research writings need correct referencing while citing other works. Reference accuracy is crucial in several ways in scholarly communication. This article investigates the referencing accuracy in management journals published by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranked (2024) top five Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). A total of 250 randomly selected journal references were checked taking 50 references from each IIM’s journal. The last issue of 2024 of each journal was selected. These five issues contained 36 articles and total number of references were 2390 appended in these 36 articles. Among 2390 references, 1748 were journal references and 642 were non-journal. The sample of 250 journal references was selected from 1748 journal references taking 50 references from each issue. Out of 250 references, 154 were found correct while 96 were incorrect. A total 132 errors were observed in 96 incorrect references. Sixty major errors and 72 minor errors were observed. In this study, the reference accuracy rate for management journals is 61.6%. In order to decrease the reference errors many suggestions are offered. Researchers and scholars need to be more attentive while compiling the reference list. Editors and reviewers need to be more careful about reference accuracy. Librarians should conduct referencing behaviour programs along with library orientation programs for users and scholars. Training of skill development in reference management tools and software can be conducted in libraries

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